MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale
Council on East Asian Studies

Tulku Ngawang Sonam

Khyentse Postdoctoral Associate in Tibetan Buddhist Studies; Lecturer in Religious Studies
Council on East Asian Studies
Academic Year: 2025-26
Research Interests:

Tibetan Buddhism; Buddhist Philosophy; Intellectual History of East and South Asian Buddhism; Tibetan Literature and Poetry; Text-Critical Study; Translation and Transmission of Buddhist and Hindu Philosophical Literature and Tantric Ritual; Contemplative Practice; Buddhist Movements in the West, especially in North America

Photo of Tulku Sonam

My name is Tulku Ngawang Sonam. My research interests center on the intellectual history of Tibet, especially Indo-Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and textual traditions. I hold a PhD (2025) and an MA (2021) in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia.

My doctoral dissertation examines how early South Asian philosophers, such as Jñānagarbha (8th cent.), Śāntarakṣita (ca. 725–ca. 788), and Kamalaśīla (ca. 740–ca. 795), interpreted the Middle Way philosophy of Nāgārjuna, the founder of the Buddhist Middle Way school. Specifically, my dissertation examines how twelfth-century Tibetan thinkers, including Chapa Chökyi Sengé (1109–1169), a prominent figure during the Tibetan Renaissance, reinterpreted Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way philosophical texts as they were imported and retranslated from the Kashmir Valley in India to Tibet.

Before pursuing my modern academic education, I spent over twenty years studying at Gaden Monastic University and Gelugpa University in South India. I completed the Geshe Lharampa degree exam, the highest qualification available in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist philosophy within the traditional Tibetan education system, in 2015.

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